This invention relates to television systems, and more particularly, this invention relates to interactive television systems such as interactive television program guide systems that suggest television programs to a user.
Cable, satellite, and broadcast television systems provide users with a large number of television channels. Users have traditionally consulted printed television program schedules to determine the programs being broadcasted at a particular time. As the number of available programs has increased, various television program guides, such as interactive television program guides, have been developed to help users select television programs of interest.
In some known systems, an interactive television program guide application allows a user to supply selection criteria which are used by the interactive television program guide application to select television programs that are of interest to the user. The selected television programs may be, for example, displayed for the user, recorded on a personal video recorder, or added to the users favorite list. Interactive television program guide applications that select television programs for a user based on user-defined selection criteria are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,706,121, 5,353,121, and 6,133,909.
Usually, the user of such known systems is required to specify a list of selection criteria and request a search based on the criteria to enable the interactive television program guide application to select television programs that are potentially of interest to the user. Such a process for providing a user with recommended programming can be tedious. Furthermore, some users may not even be aware that an option exists to allow specification of such selection criteria.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an interactive television program guide application that automatically queries a user regarding the user's interest in various television programs to assist the user in selecting future television programs of interest.